The disclosure generally relates to evaluating risk for electronic financial services and specifically relates to the mitigation of fraud and theft related to electronic stored-value cards (eSVCs).
The monetary transaction market is currently filled with many types of stored-valued cards (SVCs), pre-paid cards, debit cards, credit cards, and loyalty cards, all of which may be offered by different issuers, vendors, and providers. Some of the cards are tailored to be redeemed from a retailer while others may be redeemed by financial institutions. Other cards, such as loyalty cards, may have promotions associated with them.
For pre-paid cards and debits cards, money may be on deposit with the issuer of those cards, and those cards may be issued in the name of individual account holders. For SVCs, however, money may be stored on the cards themselves in the form of coded data. The money or value of SVCs may be accessed using a magnetic strip embedded in the card, using radio-frequency identification (RFID), or by entering a number printed on the card. SVCs may be anonymous and therefore may not be issued in the name of individual account holders.
eSVCs, which may include electronic gift cards, or eGift cards, as well as other forms of electronic transaction media, are becoming increasingly popular. Instead of providing a physical card to swipe at a retailer's location, eSVCs may appear electronically on, for instance, an application on a user's mobile device. The user may enter a retail location, open an application on his mobile phone, display an eSVC using the application, hold near to a scanner the portion of his mobile phone displaying the eSVC, and perform an electronic transaction for a good or service. The amount of money associated with the good or service may then be deducted from the total amount of money on the eSVC.